Why study Portuguese

If you are planning to visit Brazil for the spectacular Carnaval celebrations, your visit will be enhanced by a knowledge of Portuguese. You will discover that Portuguese is more than the language of the samba and Carnaval. With approximately 170 million native speakers, Portuguese is one of the most prolific languages in the world. It is second (after Spanish) as the most spoken Romance language, with an estimated 150 million Portuguese-speaking people living in Brazil, and about 10 million in Portugal.

Portuguese is one of the “Romance” languages, descended from the Latin which was spoken in the Roman provinces of Lusitania and Gallaecia (now Portugal and the Spanish province of Galicia). Between 409 AD and 711 AD the Portuguese language adopted a range of words used by invading Germanic tribes. When the Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula, Arabic became the official language although the majority of the population still spoke Romance. Portuguese spread worldwide in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries due to a combination of colonialism and commercialism which saw Portuguese language and culture reach such outposts as Brazil, Goa, parts of India and Macau in China. Portuguese was the lingua franca on the island of Sri Lanka for about 350 years and Creole languages based on Portuguese also appeared in many varied locations around the world, especially in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

We integrate active communication skills with the grammatical structure of the language. Students develop proficiency in the language by using it in realistic situations and enjoyable activities. Awareness of cross-cultural communication is also addressed as this is an important factor in language learning.

Areas of study:

• Introductions, greetings, leave-taking etc
• Giving personal details such as address, phone/fax number, occupation
• Small talk, weather, health etc
• Basic telephone skills, ordering food and drinks
• Catching a taxi and using public transport
• Asking for and understanding directions
• Prices, quantification, booking a hotel
• Inviting guests home, dates, months etc
• General knowledge of common practices and customs
• The etiquette of social and formal functions
• Cross-cultural awareness skills